Identify this superhero team

June 30, 2005 1:00 PM

Please identify this superhero team and/or story that I read when I was a kid.

I believe the story appeared as a guest story in a (non-US) Superman issue, 1985 or earlier. I don't think it was a Superman story.

It concerned a team of superheroes of the Fantastic Four variety, but I remember only one member: a gentle blue-clad guy who could grow to enormous, skyscraper-size proportions. As far as I remember, he wasn't the main guy; rather, he was a minor character.

As I recall, his spandex-style costume was a combination of blue, red, and yellow, and while his head was covered, his whole face was exposed in a rectangular opening. I remember the head design being reminiscent of a crown.

I may be conflating memories here, but I believe that in the same story, one of the characters -- it might have been the same guy -- "explodes" or ruptures: his torso beams out stuff -- quite possibly sand -- in every direction, and eventually there's just the empty shell of a torso and pools of sand stuff lying around.

I believe the story appeared in an issue of Superman which had a front cover picture of Superman encased in a rough shape of ice, floating in the black of space. Also, could anyone identify this issue?

posted by gentle to media & arts (16 comments total)

Was it Elongated Man from The Justice League?
posted by iconomy at 1:21 PM on June 30, 2005

It wasn't one of the Metal Men, was it? The sand-thing makes me guess no.
posted by tpl1212 at 1:32 PM on June 30, 2005

Not the Elongated Man; the guy I'm talking about maintained his proportions when he grew giant-sized. And he was blue.

It might have been the Justice League, though. Anyone know of a page listing all the characters that have been in JL throughout the ages?
posted by gentle at 1:33 PM on June 30, 2005

Here's a list of every character that's ever appeared in DC comics, and here's a list of members of the Justice Society, which may or may not be a different society than the Justice League...
posted by iconomy at 1:46 PM on June 30, 2005

Justice Society's differnet from the Justice League, although there's some overlap.

You could read through the Comics 101 sections on the Justice League and see if anything rings a bell...
posted by COBRA! at 1:51 PM on June 30, 2005

He wasn't made of metal.

He looked a bit like Firestorm, except (mostly) blue and with normal hair, and a less outré costume.

I'm not sure if his normal size was human-sized, or whether he was, perhaps, ordinarily very small. I notice that in some JLA pictures there's a small blue guy hanging around, but he doesn't look like "my" guy.

That DC index is pretty useless without images, unfortunately.
posted by gentle at 2:08 PM on June 30, 2005

Maybe Colossal Boy?
posted by curse at 2:22 PM on June 30, 2005

I work at DC Comics, and you're stumping me. You say this comic was non-US -- can you be more specific? Depending on where you were, the comic you read might've been a collection of stories published in several different titles, and the cover might be completely different from the US Superman books of the time. In any event, I'm browsing the cover archives at comics.org for Superman books in that timeframe, I'll let you know if I find anything.
posted by logovisual at 3:05 PM on June 30, 2005

Could it have been Action Comics #513? Superman's not in ice on the cover, but he is in space, and there is a back-up story featuring The Atom, a blue-and-red-costumed man who can change size (though ordinarily he can only shrink). He's the one you saw with the JLA and didn't suspect, though.

Otherwise I'm not turning up any cover by that description in either Action Comics or Superman between the late 70s and 1985. And I can't think of any size-changing heroes that fit your description; Atom Smasher (different from the Atom -- yeah, I know) wears a costume in those colors, and he grows, but his face is completely covered by a blue mask, and I'm not sure he existed at that point in continuity.
posted by logovisual at 3:21 PM on June 30, 2005

OK, Colossal Boy almost certainly has to be the character, now that I've looked at his old costume. That doesn't help you in terms of the actual issue, but that's got to be him, right? He's a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, who used to share a book with Superboy in the 60s -- could you be thinking of that instead of Superman?
posted by logovisual at 3:23 PM on June 30, 2005

Got it! curse, there was a cover gallery at the site you posted. It was indeed Superboy, not Superman --

Superboy & The Legion Of Super-Heroes #254
posted by logovisual at 3:25 PM on June 30, 2005

It's definitely Colossal Boy. Awesome. Thanks!

logovisual, that's actually the cover I was thinking of, which I was mixing up with the Superboy cover (where Superboy and friends are encased in ice). That means both my questions have been answered.

What about the sand thing, though? Now that I see the front covers, I suspect I may be thinking of something else, but who knows.

Also, what would be the best place to buy these issues online?
posted by gentle at 3:54 PM on June 30, 2005

It might have been Wildfire, since he's just "anti-energy" in a containment suit. Expelling all of this energy leaves just an empty suit.

Why do I remember these things?
posted by curse at 4:03 PM on June 30, 2005

You can get that issue on eBay.
posted by iconomy at 4:56 PM on June 30, 2005

Wow, and many thanks to logovisual for the GCD link. That's awesome.
posted by ontic at 8:11 PM on June 30, 2005

This is why I love metafilter.
posted by zerolives at 8:19 PM on June 30, 2005